Islamic police destroy beer in Nigeria

29th November, 2013 by Rupert Millar

Islamic police in the northern Nigerian city of Kano have destroyed over 240,000 bottles of beer.

According to Reuters, most of the beer was seized from minority Christian shop owners and taken by an earth haulage truck to a place outside of the city where it was destroyed in accordance with sharia law by the Hisbah – Islamc police – as part of a wider crackdown on “immoral behaviour” earlier this week.

Sheikh Aminu Daurawa, head of the Hisbah, said at the site: “We thank God that our command has successfully destroyed about 244,151 bottles of beer of different sorts. We hope (this) will help restore the tarnished image of Kano.

“We hereby send a warning to unrepentant offenders that Hisbah personnel will soon embark on an operation into every nook and cranny in this state to put an end to the sale and consumption of alcohol.”

NBC added that the patrol also destroyed 300,000 cigarettes and over 8,000 litres of the local “burukutu”, which is made from sorghum.

The north of Nigeria is largely Islamic and has practiced sharia law since 2000 but there are Christian enclaves (just as there are Muslim communities in the Christian south).